The present invention relates to a system for cleaning molding equipment, and more particularly, to a system for increasing the efficiency and reducing the cost of cleaning molding equipment by using a laser.
In a typical molding operation, a mold having interior surfaces configured to correspond to the shape of an article to be molded is mounted in a press and the material to be used to form the article is supplied to the mold and molded to the desired shape. When the article is removed from the mold, a certain amount of residual material remains on the interior mold surfaces. For example, when a molded rubber article is formed, residual material in the form of small pieces of rubber and/or release agents remain within the mold and must be removed through a cleaning process.
Various cleaning processes have been used for cleaning molds and most known cleaning processes incorporate a media which is introduced into the interior of the mold to impart a physical force to any residual material on the interior mold surfaces whereby the material is physically removed from the mold. Early known cleaning processes incorporated glass beads as the cleaning media which would be blown or blasted into the mold to perform a sand blasting type of cleaning operation. Subsequently, plastic beads were introduced as the cleaning media in order to reduce the amount of abrasion and possible damage which may occur to the interior of the mold tooling. More recently, CO.sub.2 has been used as the cleaning media in order to further reduce the abrasive effects of the cleaning operation on the tooling.
A problem associated with glass and plastic beads is the tendency of the bead media to become lodged or trapped within the mold which will have a deleterious effect on articles subsequently formed within the mold. Further, crevices in the mold can be difficult for the media to reach, particularly if the surface is located within a crevice which cannot be directly blasted by the media.
In addition, when CO.sub.2 is used as the blasting media, the CO.sub.2 tends to reduce the temperature of the mold such that the mold must be reheated before it can be put back into use in a molding operation.
It should also be noted that when a cleaning media is used, the mold tooling must typically be removed from the press that it is mounted in and taken to a separate cleaning area for the cleaning operation. This removal of the mold from the press results in a significant down time for the press both because of the time required to remove and reinstall the mold and as a result of the mold cooling off during its removal such that it must be reheated before the molding operation continues.
Finally, the use of a cleaning media results in increased expense for operating the molding apparatus in that there is a continuing expense for the purchase and disposal of the media used for the cleaning.
Accordingly, there is a need for a cleaning system for use with molds wherein down time interfering with the molding operation is minimized while also reducing the operating costs of the cleaning system.